Sentiment toward marketing: Should we care about consumer alienation and readiness to use technology?

Consumer sentiment toward marketing has been extensively addressed in the marketing literature. However, while most existing studies provide contributions regarding the levels of consumer perceptions of the marketing function, most fall short of providing significant insights into the antecedents of these sentiment levels. That is to say, little is offered to help marketers understand why consumers perceive the marketing function the way they do. In this study, a conceptual framework is developed in an attempt to explore consumer sentiment toward marketing in light of the increasing technological tendencies of today's marketplace. Alienation from the marketplace is assumed to be an exogenous variable that affects the degree to which individuals are ready to embrace new technologies in everyday life. The model is empirically tested using structural equation modeling. Alienation from the marketplace is found to be negatively associated with sentiment toward marketing and the drivers of technology readiness, but positively associated with the inhibitors of technology readiness. More significantly, readiness to embrace technology is found to exhibit a strong and consistent relationship with sentiment toward marketing. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.